China Southern adds two new routes to Heathrow Airport

China Southern has added two new direct Airbus A330 services from Heathrow Airport to the Chinese cities of Wuhan and Sanya.

Yesterday, the carrier started three-weekly service to Wuhan, a city referred to as the ‘Chicago of China’, and will begin two weekly scheduled services to Sanya on Hainan Island on 12 July.

Both destinations are a first for direct routes into Heathrow, the connection to Sanya is a first for Europe and both will provide over 110,000 new seats annually for passengers travelling to the region.

Despite, the positive news, the airport said European hub airports competitors are still flying to 10 more Chinese destinations and continue to have a competitive advantage in connecting to China.

Heathrow said there are 10 Chinese destinations served by European airports that are not served directly by the UK hub including Chengdu, Hangzhou, Kunming, Nanjing, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Urumqi, Xiamen and Chongqing.

In 2018, Heathrow has already started routes to Changsa and Xi’an adding to those serviced last year in China in the shape of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Qingdao.